1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to a display apparatus and a driving method thereof. More particularly, apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to a display apparatus through which a user can set an initial channel to be displayed upon turning on of the display apparatus according to a mode desired by a user, and a driving method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A display apparatus such as a television (TV) or a video cassette recorder (VCR), upon turning on, automatically tunes to and displays a channel that was last viewed before the display apparatus was turned off Accordingly, after turning on the display apparatus, a user changes a channel by inputting a key through an input device such as a remote controller, if he wants to view a different channel.
Meanwhile, display apparatuses for commercial use, such as TVs in hotels, hospitals, airports, terminals, or subways, are generally connected with a host system and have a preset default channel, such that, irrespective of any previously-displayed channel, the display apparatus automatically tunes to the preset channel by default, upon turning on.
The above concept of the commercial display apparatus has been incorporated into home use, according to which a service provider, such as a cable broadcast station, controls a home display apparatus to display an initial channel desired by the service provider when the display apparatus is turned on.
The Open Cable Application Platform (OCAP) is the specification for the U.S. cable broadcast, and provides a method for a service provider to set an initial channel of a display apparatus.
Manufacturers now provide display apparatuses along with a variety of services such as a channel manager which provides a JAVA application program Interface (API), enabling service providers to control display apparatuses in subscribers' homes.
The method of setting an initial channel of the display apparatus will be explained below.
FIG. 1 schematically shows a system which sets an initial channel of a display apparatus according to the OCAP specification, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating the process of setting an initial channel of a display apparatus.
Referring to FIG. 1, a service provider 200 provides a display apparatus 100 with a video signal and a request signal for channel designation, and in response to the request signal (hereinafter, ‘external request signal’), the display apparatus 100 sets an initial channel to tune to upon turning on, following the process illustrated in FIG. 2.
Referring to FIG. 2, the display apparatus 100 is turned on by the user (S10), and determines that the channel A was on when the display apparatus 100 was turned off (S20). A channel value of the channel A is automatically stored in the display apparatus 100 when the display apparatus 100 is turned off, such that the display apparatus 100 is able to determine that the channel A was the last channel that was viewed. Therefore, the display apparatus 100 tunes to the channel A, upon turning on (S30).
The service provider 200 may provide the external request signal according to the OCAP specification (S40), and accordingly, the API of the display apparatus 100 is called for and executed in response to the external request signal to cause the display apparatus 100 to tune to a channel B requested by the service provider 200.
Because the display apparatus 100 is set to initially tune to the last-viewed channel A, the display apparatus 100 is already tuned to the channel A. If the external request signal is received, the display apparatus 100 determines whether the last-viewed channel A matches the channel B (hereinafter, power-on channel) requested by the service provider 200 (S50).
If the last-viewed channel A matches the power-on channel B, the display apparatus 100 maintains the last-viewed channel A (S60).
If the last-viewed channel A does not match the power-on channel B, the display apparatus 100 conducts re-tuning such that the power-on channel B is set as an initial channel (S70).
In the system explained above, because the channel value of the last-viewed channel A is automatically stored in the non-volatile memory of the display apparatus 100, the last-viewed channel A is first tuned to as the initial channel upon turning on based on the stored channel value, and then the power-on channel B is re-tuned as the initial channel according to the control of the service provider 200.
Therefore, a transition period is required, during which the last-viewed channel A is displayed and then the power-on channel B is displayed.
Additionally, because the last-viewed channel A is first tuned to and then changed to the power-on channel B, it takes a considerable amount of time for the tuning, and subsequently increases the booting time of the display apparatus 100. As a result, a user may be inconvenienced, and tuning components such as a tuner can be overloaded due to double tuning.